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It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my
faith. Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord:
"Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you", as we sing in
the hymn Te Deum; with her and in her, we are won over and brought to confess:
"I believe", "We believe". It is through the Church that we
receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum, the
minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: "What do you ask of God's
Church?" and the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith offer
you?" "Eternal life."54

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Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith
through the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as the
mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our
salvation."55 Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher
in the faith.